Math Lit: One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

My math coach recently mentioned this book to me, and when I read it I immediately fell in love with it. The illustrations are wonderful, and it can be used for a wide range of learners. This was one of those books that I felt I needed to make a packet to use in my classroom!

A couple weeks ago I asked her to come and share this book with both my classes. They loved the book as much as I did. I'm still putting together a whole packet to go with the book, but I want to share a small freebie with you today. In my class we used it as a springboard for multiplication, but you can use it in primary classrooms as an addition book. Check out this picture of some of the work my kids were doing:

In this example, they are working in groups of three to solve the problem at the top of the chart paper in as many different ways as they can. This one says, "Make combinations for 58 feet. You must use at least 3 different animals." They choose the animals they want to use, glue them on the chart paper, write a factor and the X to the left and an = and the product on the right of the picture. Then they add up the products to equal 58. A lot of math talk, a lot of checking and self-correcting to get to the right number of feet, lots of strategies for the multiplication problems --- and they were having a blast!

The pictures they were using were supplied by our math coach, but I made my own page to use. This was such a great activity that I plan to use it again, giving them regular sheets of paper so they can work individually. You can download my pages of animals by clicking the picture, and of course you could do this activity without the book -- but I recommend you get it if it's not already in your library!